Honeyeaters and the Australian chats (Epthianura) make up the familyMeliphagidae. In total there are 182 species in 42 genera. About half of them are from Australia, many of the others are from New Guinea. They are part of the superfamily Meliphagoidea which includes their closest relatives, the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens), Pardalotidae (pardalotes), and Acanthizidae (thornbills, Australian warblers, scrubwrens, etc.). Although honeyeaters look and behave very much like other nectar-feeding birds around the world (such as the sunbirds and flowerpeckers), they are not related.

There is an important partnership between honeyeaters and Australian flowering plants. A great many Australian plants are fertilised by honeyeaters, particularly the Proteaceae, Myrtaceae, and Epacridaceae. It is known that the honeyeaters are important in New Zealand as well, and scientists believe they are just as important in other areas.

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A female Eastern Spinebill feeding. Honeyeaters like to hang from branches while feeding on nectar.

Unlike the hummingbirds of America, honeyeaters do not usually hover, that is be able to stay in the same air space, though smaller members of the family do hover hummingbird-style to collect nectar from time to time. Usually honeyeaters move quickly from perch to perch in the outer leaves, stretching up or sideways or hanging upside. Many honeyeaters have a highly developed brush-tipped tongue, covered with bristles which soak up liquids readily. The tongue is flicked rapidly and repeatedly into a flower, the upper mandible then squeezes any liquid out when the bill is closed.

As well as nectar, all or nearly all honeyeaters take insects and other small creatures, usually by catching them in the air, sometimes by picking them off plants. A few of the larger species, notably the White-eared Honeyeater, and the Strong-billed Honeyeater of Tasmania, search under bark for insects. Many species also eat fruit, and a small number eat large amounts of fruit,[2] particularly in tropical rainforests and, oddly, in semi-arid scrubland. The Painted Honeyeater is a mistletoe specialist. Most, however, live on a diet of nectar and insects. In general, the honeyeaters with long, fine bills eat more nectar, the shorter-billed species less so, but even specialised nectar eaters like the spinebills take extra insects to add protein to their diet when they are breeding.

The movements of honeyeaters are poorly understood. Movement for most species seem to be local, possibly between favourite spots as the conditions change. Changes in the numbers of honeyeaters are common, but the small number of definitely migratory honeyeater species aside, the reasons are yet to be discovered. Many follow the flowering of favourite food plants. Arid zone species appear to travel further and less predictably than those of the more fertile areas. It seems probable that no single explanation will emerge: the general rule for honeyeater movements is that there is no general rule.

In 2008, a study of museum specimens in the genera Moho and Chaetoptila, both extinct genera from the Hawaiian islands, argued that these five species were not members of the Meliphagidae and instead belong to their own distinct family, the Mohoidae.[5]

Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. (1994). The Taxonomy and Species of Birds of Australia and its Territories. Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union Monograph 2. Melbourne: RAOU. ISBN 1-875122-06-0.

Cracraft, J. and Feinstein, J. (2000). What is not a bird of paradise? Molecular and morphological evidence places Macgregoria in the Meliphagidae and the Cnemophilinae near the base of the corvoid tree. Proc. Roy. Soc. London, B 267 233-241.